Trafalgar – The Innovator for Guided Vacations

As a little girl, my mom and I loved to visit travel agencies in the 70s and the 80s. I would always see Trafalgar brochures all over the place…posters on the walls, brochures, magazines etc. and I always wondered what travel experiences could be discovered behind this name? My curiosity remained but was never realized because mom insisted we always stay with relatives when we traveled.

Well fast forward a couple decades and I now have the pleasure of interviewing the President of Trafalgar Paul Wiseman and Communication Manager Lisa McKee. I was quite impressed with what the company offers. I’m a busy mom and career woman and time for me is gold. That’s why Trafalgar appeals to me. They offer guided vacations and VIP treatment that make the travel experience more enjoyable. The Trafalgar approach can save a person much time and expense while traveling.

Attendees visit Trafalgar Booth

My interview came about while visiting the LA Travel and Adventure Show last February 21st.. I received an invitation to interview Paul Wiseman. I readily accepted her invitation. I arrived to their booth 1431 and I was greeted first by Lisa McKee and she asked me “From popbuff.com? That’s how organized they are. Lisa gave me an introduction to the company and I was so impressed. After our chat, she introduced me to the President of Trafalgar Paul Wiseman, a very friendly and approachable person. Wiseman explained why guided vacations are an excellent option for both domestic and international travel. Trafalgar has been creating exceptional guided vacations for almost 70 years. And so I thought, where have I been? I should have known about them years and years back.

So when I asked Lisa, can you tell me about Trafalgar in a nutshell? Lisa replied,

“Trafalgar has been the innovator for guided vacations for 70 years. What we have found is today’s modern traveler wants to travel differently so we’ve designed and tailored our packages to accommodate the needs of a modern traveler who wants more free time. The good thing about guided vacations is that all the major things are included…everything from hotel fees to transportation which is critical in a foreign country. We are the world’s most awarded travel company. We have local experts in the area that know exactly what hotel to stay at. They are all handcrafted and handpicked. You land in a foreign country, we pick you up, we take you to the hotel. You don’t touch a bag. All your bags are delivered to your hotel room. It’s like having your own personal concierge. You don’t check in when you get to the hotel. We pre-check you and hand your keys. All gratuities are included so you don’t have to tip any for included meals. So that’s all part of a guided vacation.

We take care of all the things for you to save time so you can have fun because Americans don’t take a lot of vacation time. It’s valuable – every hour on your
vacation matters.“

After Lisa, I asked Trafalgar’s President Paul Wiseman, there are tons of Travel companies out there what makes Trafalgar different?

Paul Wiseman President of Trafalgar

“First of all, Trafalgar is a guided vacation company. And a guided vacation is a package where we provide transportation, accommodation, sightseeing and meals. And the difference between that kind of package and a lot of other packages is we provide a Travel Director and people travel together in small groups. In small and medium size groups. So the best way is to give example. Somebody wants to go to Italy. We have a package called Best of Italy. It’s 14 days. And in that 14 days people will see the highlights of Italy. They will get to see all of the interesting places. But we provide VIP entrance to all of them. Especially in summer time where you have to wait 4-5 hours. They pull up to the VIP entrance and you go right in…travel directors provide the whole history, culture and background the entire time. We also have what we call “Unique Insider Experiences”. On that same trip to Italy at some point our guests will arrive at a villa in Tuscany. A local Italian family will serve them a home-cooked meal. And all that’s included for them, something travelers wouldn’t be able to do on their own. They don’t have to do anything. We’re doing a lot of things. First of all, we’re saving people a lot of money. Our price point is $250/a day and that includes accommodation, transportation sightseeing meals in Europe so that is in euros and pounds. Convert that back to $250 US dollars. The buying power is going a long way. So we’re saving a lot of money. We’re saving a huge amount of time because of those VIP entrances plus the itinerary is done for them. Best of France, Best of Italy…how do we know that’s the Best of Italy because we’ve been doing it for 70 years. In Italy this year in the summer time, we have 22 itineraries operating almost daily, and we’ve been doing this for 70 years . And what that means is we know how long it takes to get from point A to point B quickly to maximize our guests’ vacation time. We know how long it takes to get things done. You know where the traffic jams are going to be to avoid them.We know what time to leave to get somewhere so those itineraries become crafted overtime.

The other thing about Trafalgar that makes us different is it’s people all over the world that travel together with us so if you went to Trafalgar’s Best of Italy tomorrow, you would find people from Australia, people from New Zealand, people from Canada, people from America, people from the Philippines on that trip. All in English though. We only do trips in one language. We don’t do multiple language.

Another thing is the wide range of product that we have. We have lots and lots of different itineraries offering different travel styles. If you ask me how many driving days, how many nights in the hotel, what time do I have to get up in the morning and the answer to that is all in the different itineraries. If you want to see all of Europe in three days, you’re gonna be very very busy. If you’re just going to see Tuscany for a week..very slow moving. You don’t even have to change hotels.

So it all depends. People can choose the pace and the style of trip based on all of these different products.“

After reading this, aren’t you convinced? So plan now your vacation and book your travel through Trafalgar.